SSG's Monthly Hasbro Q&A - April 8th

[bigbarada]

I would like to finally see a Grey Squadron Y-Wing and either way I want to let big H know that either way I'm excited about a new Y-Wing. I hear nothing but good things about the CW version and it's time the OT incarnation got a little TLC as well.

I would definitely prefer an ROTJ Y-Wing with a Grey Leader Y-Wing Pilot. The grey suited pilots are only Rebel Pilots to have never been given an action figure so I feel that they are long overdue. Besides, I'm kind of sick to death of orange suited pilots.

[TheDarthVader]

I second that. Any new pilots are welcome in my opinion, but the gray suited pilots would put an instant smile on my face.

[JediTricks]

The other question was from JediTempleWarRoom which got the following response:

I would like to finally see a Grey Squadron Y-Wing and either way I want to let big H know that either way I'm excited about a new Y-Wing. I hear nothing but good things about the CW version and it's time the OT incarnation got a little TLC as well.

First thing: the Y-wing Hasbro was planning is not an all-new mold the way the awesome CW version is. The OT Y-wing they were planning was a modified version of the existing mold, it was to have a new cockpit, the landing gear problem fixed, and a few other upgrades, but it wasn't a new mold.

I am curious what the difference is between the ROTJ Gray Squadron Y-wings and the ANH Gold Squadron, I haven't seen any diff. I just brought up the film, the only ROTJ Y-wing that you can see clearly is the same yellow markings one from ANH, it's during the hangar scene (also, the B-wing is in those shots in a few places and it's smaller than I had been told by most sources, which is cool). In the action scenes, they all blur pretty badly and look gray, but so did the ones in ANH.

I would definitely prefer an ROTJ Y-Wing with a Grey Leader Y-Wing Pilot. The grey suited pilots are only Rebel Pilots to have never been given an action figure so I feel that they are long overdue. Besides, I'm kind of sick to death of orange suited pilots.

I haven't seen anything in ROTJ that suggests their costumes are gray. Is it in the briefing? I didn't notice anything like that. The "Arvel Cyrnyd" POTF2 figure is the Y-wing flight suit from ROTJ. I do agree that I'm sick of orange flight suits though.

[bigbarada]

I haven't seen anything in ROTJ that suggests their costumes are gray. Is it in the briefing? I didn't notice anything like that. The "Arvel Cyrnyd" POTF2 figure is the Y-wing flight suit from ROTJ. I do agree that I'm sick of orange flight suits though.

This is why everyone needs to invest in the 1983 ROTJ storybook. Thanks to that wonderful little book, I've known about Ephant Mon, Kithaba, and the grey Y-Wing Pilots since 1983.

The grey pilots are visible in the briefing room and it's not just color issues, because you can clearly make out the orange, red and green of the other pilots outfits. Plus there is one prancing around on Endor at the end of the film and he's clearly visible on the last page of the aforementioned storybook.

Also, here is an illustration from the Art of ROTJ book, showing that they definitely intended to make grey pilots as early on as 1981 (although he's incorrectly identified as a B-Wing Pilot in the book).

[JediTricks]

A screenshot would go a lot further than concept art. There is no green A-wing in ROTJ for example, despite a number of toys and art.

I have the Art of ROTJ book, but don't remember that. What makes you so sure that's a Y-wing and not a B-wing pilot? The design is very similar to the B-wing outfit we've seen.

[LTBasker]

You can find some shots of the pilots in ROTJ here: http://www.erikstormtrooper.com/ywingpilot.htm

He also makes a great point at the bottom:

To understand my educated guess, let's dwell for a moment on the bizarre Cinema Scene figure that Hasbro named Arvyl Crynd. First, he is not Arvyl, since Arvyl is actually a non-oriental A-Wing pilot wearing green in ROJ (he's the one that flies into the super star destroyer's bridge). Second, even if he were an A-Wing pilot and Hasbro just got the color wrong, the chest box does not match what an A-Wing pilot wears. So what's going on here? Hell if I know, but I imagine that "mystery Arvyl" is actually wearing the chest box for a Y-Wing pilot (it must have come from somewhere), and Hasbro got confused somewhere along the way.

This picture that I found on TF.Net looks like great evidence for the Y-Wing pilot argument. If you look at the top edge of the canopy's window, it looks too short and not steeply angled enough to be the side window of an X-wing canopy, and both A and B-wings have bubble canopies. Plus, 1-2 other times when it cuts to a pilot wearing that helmet, Y-wings are in formation rather than the X-wing and A-wing.

[bigbarada]

You can find some shots of the pilots in ROTJ here: http://www.erikstormtrooper.com/ywingpilot.htm

Yeah, those are the two photos that I was talking about and it's interesting that he cites the same source. Makes me wonder if that's the only time that those images have ever seen print.

[JediTricks]

You can find some shots of the pilots in ROTJ here: http://www.erikstormtrooper.com/ywingpilot.htm

He also makes a great point at the bottom:


This picture that I found on TF.Net looks like great evidence for the Y-Wing pilot argument. If you look at the top edge of the canopy's window, it looks too short and not steeply angled enough to be the side window of an X-wing canopy, and both A and B-wings have bubble canopies. Plus, 1-2 other times when it cuts to a pilot wearing that helmet, Y-wings are in formation rather than the X-wing and A-wing.

See, was that so hard?

[JediTricks]

Other sites roundup is posted after sucking an hour and a half from my soul:
http://www.sirstevesguide.com/index....articleid=2676

There are currently 24 sites which participated in that round, not counting our 2 sites. Of the sites that are regular or semi-regular, 7 more sites did not post answers this round (1 was confirmed to have missed the deadline). That means there are around 33 sites participating in this Q&A series right now.

[El Chuxter]

Man, some people really love their reissues. "Can we get inaccurate figures like we got in 1978?" Yeesh.